I created this piece as a self-portrait. I decided to depart from traditional self-portraits in which the face is the focus. The reason I chose the title for this piece is because I use my hands and my hair as personal identification. My motivation to examine other unique parts of myself came from simple haircut. I created this after I cut my long, blonde hair and donated it to Locks of Love. However, before I mailed the locks, I photographed my hands entangled in the now severed hair.

I was born in the small town of Brenham, Texas. I drew constantly all through childhood. Animals were my first models, both real (my menagerie of pets) and fantastic (dragons and such). Despite this obsession with drawing, I did not pursue art as a career until college. During my undergraduate education, I studied drawing, painting, printmaking, and art history. I absorbed these subjects like a sponge, culminating in a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a painting concentration from Baylor University. I traveled abroad, and lived for five months in Florence, Italy. There I took classes in cooking, Italian, and Renaissance art. Upon my return the the States, I dove into art again. I attended an intensive drawing “marathon” at the New York Studio School. I then moved to Baltimore. I was a Texas girl eager to see the East Coast and to attend MICA as a Post-Baccalaureate student. After that, I moved to Houston, TX, to earn my Master of Fine Arts from the University of Houston. I currently live in Denver.